Enhanced meat is becoming more and more popular in the United States. This
trend is well established with pork and poultry and is spreading to
beef products. It's something that you as a consumer and as a
barbecue enthusiast should understand when you go shopping for meat.

What Is Enhanced Meat?

For the purposes of this discussion, enhanced meat can be defined as
fresh, whole muscle meat that
has been injected with a solution of water and other
ingredients that may include salt, phosphates, antioxidants, and flavorings. Regular meat can be defined as fresh, whole muscle meat that has not been
injected or marinated.

There's really nothing
sinister about enhanced meat. The self-basted Butterball turkey
that you cook at Thanksgiving is an enhanced meat. When you brine chicken overnight in
your refrigerator, you're making enhanced meat.

The problem isn't so
much enhanced meat as a concept, but that in some parts of the country
it's becoming more difficult to buy certain cuts of meat that have not
been enhanced—and conventional, non-enhanced meat is what most barbecue
enthusiasts are looking for. Fresh pork is the best example of this
trend. In some supermarkets, most fresh pork products, including spare
and loin back ribs, butts, picnics, and loins, are available only as an
enhanced pork product—non-enhanced versions of these same cuts are not
available.

Fresh meat products that
have been cured, injected, or marinated for convenience or to
change the flavor characteristics of the meat are not the subject of
this article. The corned beef brisket that you boil on St. Patrick's Day is
an enhanced meat product that contains a curing agent, but no one would
mistake it for a regular brisket. Likewise, a whole chicken pre-marinated
in Italian seasoning would not be confused with a regular chicken. In both
cases, a non-enhanced version of brisket and chicken are available to
consumers.

How Is Meat Enhanced?

Whole muscle meat is passed through a machine
that injects the meat with a liquid solution. These computer-controlled
devices have one or more injection heads containing many fine needles that
pierce the meat. Complex pressure controls,
filters, flexible needle mounts, and separate shut-off controls for each
needle allow the solution to be injected evenly throughout the entire cut
of meat, even those containing bones.

The meat may be weighed
before and after injection to determine the percentage of solution added
to the meat by weight.

Why Is Meat Enhanced?

There are many reasons why the meat industry is trending toward enhanced
meats. Here are the most common ones discussed in trade publications
and research papers.

Tenderness,
Moisture, And Flavor
Due to food safety concerns, consumers tend to overcook pork and poultry.
Enhanced meats retain more moisture, even when overcooked, resulting in
a more tender "mouth feel". When if comes to pork, much of the fat (and flavor) has been
intentionally bred out of the animal by an industry intent on providing
meat that appeals to health-conscious consumers. Enhancing pork helps
add some flavor back to the meat.

Consumer
Convenience
Consumers are spending much less time preparing meals than they did
10-20 years ago. Also, many people lack confidence in how to select and
prepare meat. Enhanced meats are ready to cook, easy to
prepare, and taste good to the average consumer.

Extended Shelf Life
And Improved Food SafetyWhen meat is injected with a solution to enhance moisture and flavor,
spoilage microorganisms can go along for the ride deep inside the meat.
Adding a substance like sodium L-lactate to the solution delays or
inhibits the growth of spoilage microorganisms, extending the shelf life
of the meat by 30-50%. The result is better food safety for consumers
and reduced economic loss for retailers.

Better Color And
Moisture Retention, Less Rancidity
Injecting meat with a solution containing phosphates results in better
meat color, increased water retention, and reduced rancidity caused by
the oxidation of metal ions in meat. The combination of potassium
L-lactate and salt can reduce the oxidation of fat, resulting in better
color and odor in some refrigerated and frozen meats.

Reduced "Purge"
"Purge" is
the liquid that accumulates in the bottom of the meat package during
display in the meat case. Purge is not attractive to consumers and
causes some retailers to remove and discard these products before
their shelf life expiration date. This results in lost money for
retailers and higher prices for consumers. Purge also occurs when frozen
meats are thawed. Injecting a solution into meat can help tie up water and minimize purge.

New Product
Development
Enhanced meat allows for the development of new processed fresh meat
products that were previously not possible, like pre-marinated meats and
seasoned fresh pork sausage.

Branding Of Meat
Meat producers can distinguish their products by putting their own
brand name on enhanced meat products.

Increased Profitability
By "adding value" to meat by enhancing it, meat producers
can charge more for their products and achieve higher profits. Also, by
solving the problems of color retention and purge, enhanced meat
facilitates the trend toward case-ready meat—meat that is butchered and
packaged at the meat packing plant so that it's ready for display and sale
in retail stores. Case-ready meat is more profitable for meat producers
and for retailers, and it represents the future of meat in America...and
the demise of your local butcher.

Some people counter that
enhanced meat is just a way for producers to make more profit by selling
meat that's pumped full of water. Don Schiefelbein, Executive Director of
the American Gelbvieh Association,
a cattle breeding association based in Westminster, Colorado, wrote the
following in an article titled, "Lean & Tender vs. Lean & Tasty: Let's Not
Become Chicken":

"The lean and tender movement has
already taken place in both the pork and poultry industry. The
controlling entity (usually the packer) has driven the change in the
name of consistency. Unfortunately, the leaner you make meat, the
higher the risk of drying out the product during cooking. In order to
manage dryness, the pork and
poultry packers have aggressively begun offering moisture-enhanced
products, i.e. lean and tender pork with water added. The result has
been devastating to the pork industry. Lean and tender,
moisture-enhanced pork now tastes just like chicken…

"Our beef industry is heading down
that very same road. Packers have tremendous economic incentive to
increase their profits and manage dryness in the lean product by adding
water (moisture enhanced). Exactly the way it has already happened in
the pork and poultry industry. The economics are simple. The more water
you add, the more profit you make in the short run."

Editor's Note:
As of 2/1/2007, the aforementioned article was no longer
available online.

But is enhanced meat
really better than regular meat? Most barbecue enthusiasts think not,
saying that some enhanced meats taste too salty, "hammy", or metallic. But
in a blind taste test sponsored by the
U.S. Meat Export Federation, out of 250 influential Caribbean chefs,
90% chose enhanced pork as having the best flavor and texture in a typical
foodservice setting. In a 2002 study of enhanced pork chops conducted by
the Colorado
State University Department of Animal Sciences, "the enhanced products
were very similar to each other and superior to the non-enhanced products
for sensory traits and WBS force measurements (a measure of tenderness).
Enhancing the products with sodium phosphate and sodium lactate increases
tenderness, juiciness, and moisture retention."

Whatever your opinion, enhanced
meat is becoming less expensive than regular meat because of the economies
of scale that result from producing huge quantities of enhanced meat in
highly efficient factories. Also, as regular meat becomes relegated to
high-end markets and specialty butchers, the price differential between
these two kinds of meat will become even greater.

Why Should
You Care?

In my opinion, it's important that you know what you're buying. Let's say you go to the supermarket and find slabs
of loin back ribs in
Cryovac packaging with a brand name you recognize. You don't read the fine
print on the package, assuming they're regular ribs. You take the
ribs home, apply a favorite rub, and
cook them in the Weber Bullet like you've done countless times before. But this
time, for some reason the ribs are too salty and taste "hammy".

What went wrong? Did you
use too much salt in the rub? Was it the smoke wood? In many cases, it
turns out that the enhanced meat is the culprit.

Does this mean that
enhanced meat is bad? Not necessarily. It all depends on what you're
looking for. If you like the price, convenience, and flavor of enhanced
meat, then by all means buy it. Personally, when I cook ribs or pork butt
in the WSM, I prefer to buy non-enhanced meat, which I think of as a
"blank canvas" on which I can apply the flavors that I like. However, I'm
not totally consistent on this point. When it comes to whole turkey, I may
buy a Butterball turkey that's been injected with a solution to enhance
its moisture and flavor, or I may buy a natural
turkey and dry brine it with salt or liquid brine it using a solution of my own creation. Either way, I'm
cooking an enhanced turkey.

How To
Identify Enhanced Meat

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

Just because meat is sold in Cryovac packaging or in a fancy
butcher shop display case does not mean that it's not enhanced meat. Even the word
"natural" on the label does not guarantee non-enhanced meat.

Under
federal law, the solution used to enhance meat must be disclosed on the
package label. The label must list the total quantity and the common or
usual name of the solution ingredients.

The only way
to determine if meat has been enhanced is to carefully read the package
label and ask lots of questions of the meat department personnel.

If you're trying to avoid enhanced meat, you
do not want to see any of the phrases listed below on the package
label.

In Photo 1, a
Butterball frozen turkey reads:

"Contains up to 7% of
a solution to enhance juiciness and tenderness of water, salt, modified
food starch, sodium phosphates and natural flavors."

In Photo 2, the story
is a bit more confusing. The big print on this Butterball turkey says
"FRESH" and "ALL NATURAL". One could be forgiven for assuming this is a
non-enhanced turkey. However, you'll notice there's a little asterisk at
the end of "NATURAL". The fine print on the label says:

"Contains up to
4% of
a solution of water, salt and spices to enhance tenderness and juiciness.
Fresh never frozen. *No artificial ingredients. Minimally processed."

In this case,
Butterball defines "all natural" to mean nothing artificial added. But
clearly this is an enhanced turkey because of the use of a salt and
spice solution. As you can see, "fresh, all natural" and "minimally
processed" does not necessarily mean "not enhanced".

In Photo
3, a grocery store brand of frozen turkey reads:

"Injected with approximately 8-1/2% of a solution for juiciness and
tenderness. Solution ingredients: Turkey broth, salt, sodium
phosphate, sugar and flavorings"

Another brand of frozen
bone-in turkey breast reads:

"Injected with up to
15% of a solution to enhance juiciness. Solution ingredients: turkey
broth, salt, sugar, sodium phosphates, flavoring"

In Photo
4, a
national-brand of enhanced pork spareribs says on its label:

"Tenderness
and moistness improved with up to twelve percent Deep
BastedTM solution"

Another
popular brand of enhanced pork ribs reads:

"Deep
BastedTM by addition of up to 7%
of a solution of water, sodium phosphates."

Another brand of
"premium" pork loin back ribs says:

"Moistness enhanced
with up to an 8% solution*"

Then on the back of the
package it says:

"*Solution
ingredients: Water, salt, sodium phosphates"

Be on the look-out for
the words "basted", "enhanced", "injected",
"improved" and "marinated". Look for fancy packages
with recognizable brand names that use phrases like "always tender",
"moist and juicy", "tender and juicy", "guaranteed tender", and "extra
tender".

But what if the meat has
been packaged (or repackaged) by the supermarket or is displayed
unpackaged? In this case, ask the meat department personnel if
the meat has been enhanced with a solution. If he or she says "No," then say that you're serious about old-fashioned,
slow-cooked barbecue, and that you prefer conventional meat. Then ask, "Can you
bring out the original box or Cryovac packaging so I can take a look?"
Like Ronald Reagan said while negotiating nuclear arms reductions with the
Soviet Union, "Trust, but verify."

How To Identify Non-Enhanced Meat

Photo 5

Non-enhanced meat contains no added salt, solutions or flavorings.
You should not see the phrase, "Contains up to X% of a
solution to
enhance tenderness and juiciness" on the label.

Photo 5 shows the label
for a regular, non-enhanced turkey. It may include a phrase like "Contains up
to 6% retained water." Do not confuse this with an enhanced turkey.
Retained water is water that is absorbed and retained by the skin and
meat as a result of washing and water-immersion chilling during
processing. The USDA requires that poultry producers prove that
the retained water is an unavoidable consequence of the process used
to meet food safety requirements and that they list the actual or
maximum percentage of retained water on the label.

Closing
Thoughts

You have the right to know what you're
buying, but you also have the responsibility to be a careful
shopper, read package labels, and ask the butcher about their products if
you have any questions.

Enhanced
meat is the wave of the future and it's not going away. People who live
in locations that don't have many meat sources to choose from may end
up having no choice but to accept enhanced meats and learn to adapt their
barbecue recipes accordingly. For example, one might cut back on the
amount of salt used in a rub.

In the
meantime, tell your butcher and your grocery store manager that you prefer
regular meat, if that's your preference, and vote with your wallet.
It may not make any difference in the long run, but hopefully there will always be sources out
there providing fresh, conventional meat...even if the cost is higher.

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